More than a pint of moisture is injected into your home's air during each shower. If not ventilated properly, that moisture and its potential mold and mildew can compromise your home's indoor air quality and structural integrity. Fear not, though — these design tools and techniques can rid that moisture, leaving you breathing easy.

Ventilating your bath is ideally a two-fold approach of both a bath fan and operable windows. Operable windows not only ventilate, but also provide design value, views and natural daylight and help balance the air pressure in your home.

You needn't be an extrovert to incorporate windows into your bath. Shutters allow airflow and modesty to coexist. Seek out shutters made of composite materials, rather than wood, that can hold up to the moist environment.

Look (up) to operable skylights for another way to introduce natural light and exhaust moist air. If your skylight is out of arm's reach, consider making its operation motorized to ensure you take advantage of its function.

A door from your bath to the exterior is a big design move that also provides lots of fresh air. If you lack access to a walkable surface outside, you can still have doors with a Juliet balcony — a false balcony with a railing mounted just outside the doors.

However unsexy, mechanical ventilation via a bath fan is essential (and typically required by building codes) to properly remove moisture from your bath. Seek out Energy Star models, which ensure that the unit is energy efficient, effective and quiet. Panasonic's Whisper series is my go-to for quiet and effective exhaust fans. The WhisperGreen products are up to 871 percent more efficient than Energy Star standards, and they detect both motion and humidity, automatically turning on when someone enters or leaves the room, or when high humidity is sensed.

Consult with a licensed mechanical contractor to be sure your bath fan is sized properly for your bath and that it's properly vented to the exterior.

Bath exhaust fans should stay on for at least one hour after baths or showers to effectively remove excess moisture from your bathroom, as moisture lingers in damp towels, bath mats and even in your walls. A fan equipped with a timer will ensure the fan remains on as long as needed to exhaust moisture. Note that many timers have a 30-minute limit, so hit the switch a second time when you leave the room.

How timely for me. Hubby just got out of the shower and once again has closed the bathroom door behind him and not turned on the fan. I could go in there an hour from now and find the walls still wet from the moisture in the air. I've made up my mind to change my bathroom window to an operable one and it is definitely time to jettison the ancient bath fan which makes about as much noise as a kitchen garbage disposal ... one that is grinding walnut shells. We avoid using the fan because it is so noisy. New ones are so quiet that you need a timer so you don't forget to turn it off. Great post!

Another of the unsung benefits of heated towel rails is that even the small amount of heat they provide helps air circulate in tall bathrooms to prevent mildew - no substitute for an open window of course!

Request for help here: Our NYC apartment was built in the late 1800's - and while there's a vent above the shower head - it does nothing. There's no electrical fan - our outlet - and I'd love some input on how I can effectively eliminate moisture from the bath. I'm currently employing Damp Rid, Lysol, excessive cleaning and occasional husband scolding. Any ideas?

Well, the problem with some of these "solutions" is it doesn't work very well to open your windows in the middle of winter. Also, that obscured glass? Once you open the windows there goes the obscurity and you're on view to the world. I was hoping for some actual solutions since we have a real problem with this in our tiny little bathroom. Currently, our only option *is* to open the window but it doesn't really remove the moisture well enough.

Purchased a home that has a 1/4 addition second floor with a flat roof. The small bathroom has only a toilet and sink. The way the main house roof is sloped there is not enough room for a window and we cannot install a a window on the flat roof. There is a fan in the wall but I can see outside when it is on and light shows through when it is off. It might as well be a hole in the wall - freezing cold air comes in it in the winter and hot roof heat enters in the summer along with chimney smoke and smoke from neighbors who think a backyard fireplace in the summer is a great idea when houses are very close together. Also have to constantly remove bee nests from inside the fan as we do not use that room very much. Need a solution to this problem especially since I have asthma and the price of oil is skyrocketing - need I mention the bees! I am told that the fan I have is the only wall fan available. HELP!

A plumber told me the vent fans are really only meant to take out the initial steam from a shower, not to completely ventilate an entire space. He said leaving the fan on for more than a few minutes is just a waste of energy. If you think about it, you're shooting heated or cooled air out of the vent along with any steam or odor.

@happycamper2168: the only thing I could come up with (albeit not an elegant solution) would be similar to a portable air conditioner. A mechanical contractor might be able to rig up a portable exhaust fan that can be inserted into a window opening to draw excess moisture out. Again - more technical than elegant.

@goosefairy: this is partly why mechanical ventilation is required by code - it's not always feasible to open windows. unfortunately, there's really no substitute for an exhaust fan that's properly sized/selected for your space.

@janet4784: bath exhaust fans are designed to draw excess moisture, and simply *must* be kept on longer to exhaust all that shower steam and moisture on the walls. that moisture is far more detrimental than the extra energy consumed by the fan. it's worth noting too that some newer fans, including HRVs (heat recovery ventilators) and ERVs (energy recovery ventilators) are designed to provide continuous low levels of ventilation (e.g. 20cfm, instead of a conventional exhaust fan at 60 or 80cfm) and recover the energy (heated or chilled) from the exhausted air. HRVs and ERVs are the new 'lungs' for our new tighter and more energy efficient homes.

Do your research about bathroom fans, and check into other options. We have replaced ours at least 3 times, because they are poorly made. We have been able to find something so far to fit our existing opening Here's what we have done in the past... Made molding around the new fan, to seal up any exposed edges. Also, my husband has swapped internal parts as well. I think it's part of the "Light Bulb Conspiracy."
ps.
@happycamper2168: we have been recommended to use exterior semi-gloss paint for our bathroom. It has been an effective prevention. We have no windows in our small bath.

Over the years throughout my travels I have seen bathroom (and kitchen) fans installed on the actual window pane. A circle is cut out of the actual glass and a small (6-8 inch) round fan is installed in the "hole" and it seems to work really well as an exhaust system. Do we have anything like this in the US?

I'm in a building where the bathroom is in the interior of the unit; if I had a window, it would look out onto the hallway I share with 152 other neighbors. Any tips for bathrooms with no windows - both ventilation and remodeling?

We are about to build a new house courtesy of earthquakes and good insurance in New Zealand, and the one thing I bang on about is wanting a Shower Dome to enclose the shower. Apparently you tend to use slightly less hot water as you are warmer in the shower and no steam escapes to deteriorate your bathroom - it all condenses within the shower and dome and goes down the drain. So I'm making sure the shower design works with this product! http://www.showerdome.co.nz/

Our home is 18 years old. Our exhaust ceiling fan has worked pretty well. However, as that bathroom window has aged and we are in Minnesota, the (tiny) bathroom feels too cold for me. What I do currently is use a space heater. The surprise discovery was one day when I forgot to turn the fan on. When I opened the glass shower door to my surprise, the dry air from the space heater had kept the mirror completely steam free and stayed ahead of it after the shower door was opened. Adding dry heat is a great solution. If using your air-conditioner it takes the chill off without overheating and quickly enough cools down again to finish getting ready once you turn the heater off ( or open the door as I must do to make room to dry my hair :/ ). The question is, why hasn't anyone provided such a solution for residential application?

Towel warmers are a great option to help reduce moisture in bathrooms during showers. Amba Products offers a wide variety of towel warmers to suit shapes and sizes that not only warm and dry your towels, but some of them also double as space heaters - kill two birds with one stone! I have the Quadro collection towel warmer in my bathroom and it provides the extra warmth i need during the winter to keep away the winter chill, while greatly reducing the moisture. You can see them at www.ambaproducts.com

A fan looks better with the grill orientate the right way. If you do not understand this theory then this unboxing video of my newest Panasonic Whisper Quiet Fan might help illustrate the concept a little better.